No Stupid Questions

I consider most “for profit” corporations as corrupt and amoral.

So, yes. Those are the only ones who pay close to a living wage.

I've done this. I was working for scraps out of college as a community reporter when an ostensibly conservative online news organization offered me an 80% pay raise and the opportunity to do most of my work from home. I was young, recently married and wanted to start a family, and we needed the money. The bigger salary was nice, but over the course of two years I spiraled into a deep depression and began to loath myself and what I did. It was so bad I began looking for a way out after the first six months. Eventually I got out (took a pay cut to do so) but am now in a much better place personally and professionally. I would never do anything like that ever again.

There is 1) work you can do to improve this messed up world, 2) work that leaves it as messed up as it already is but doesn't make it particularly worse, and 3) work that actively seeks to make it worse.

I'll do #1 for free or at discounted rates, #2 if the pay is good (this is what I generally expect to do these days), and avoid #3 to the extent that I can. Though if the pay is ridiculously good, maybe that transfer of assets from the bad guys to me could be considered an improvement in the world in its own right ;).

No matter how good the pay, the resulting cognitive dissonance would overwhelm me eventually and either lead to a mental breakdown, or me quitting. It wouldn't be worth it.

This is quite a relevant question for me. In Greece there isn't a lot of innovation and the government doesn't really give a shit to fix the root problems, all young people that can change the scene leave for better countries.

That leaves us with very few companies that do something respectable and are worth working for, and a ton of gambling companies that feed off of the uneducated people. Those gambling companies are making huge profits and doing very well in general, so working for them is usually a nice experience from what I've heard of.

It's often tempting, but I can't justify participating in this disgusting industry to get more money, benefits and time. It would never sit well with me, but it always feels unfair how many jobs there are for that industry compared to anything else.

Definitely. I'm a whore.

As long as it isn't something obviously evil like religion.

Not only is the answer no, but I'm currently taking a pretty big pay cut to work for a non-profit that I believe in. When you work for scum you start to lose your soul, and it's hard to have any pride in your work knowing your only contribution is enriching your boss. Now my work goes towards a good cause, and I'm far more motivated to do well at my job.

I currently do. I worked for a European SME who was purchased by a fortune 500 company which are currently in the news for anti union actions in the US.

I am lucky enough that to fire someone in my country is a royal pain in the ass so I am always fine with calling out their horseshit in the internal company surveys.

Unless you're supportive of the concept that you're a non-capitalist drone working to make a capitalist rich... You already do

No. Never.

I currently do and I need to get out ASAP. I should've stayed in school, the pay is great but the self loathing isn't worth it

Depends on how bad the company is and ig I'm in dire need of a job/ pay rise.

I've turned down jobs at Nestle and De Beers due to them being widely unethical and because I had a decent job at the time.

To a certain degree, there ain't really that many companies that are ideologically aligned with me lol

I currently do! I work for one of the huge mega tech corporations.

They pay me very well, I have great benefits, and a I get a ton of paid time off. They don't work me too many hours. They were very flexible with me when my wife was in and out of the hospital. They give decent annual raises and bonuses, and great stock bonuses.

Unless something changes, I don't see myself leaving, even though I know I could get money by bouncing around, because my job is very easy and the pay is very good for how easy my job is.

I do. I'm riding out the clock. I've already put the time in and am grandfathered into better retirement/severance benefits than I could get anywhere else. I hate it, but I have a family to feed.

No, but i am lucky to have the choice not too.

Everyone has their own code of ethics, but I think almost every company has some things that might be controversial or that people don't like. Even some of my favorite companies have done things that I am really opposed to.

I would not work in a job where I had to directly do things that I was morally opposed to. But we live in a society where huge companies touch our lives in a lot of different ways. If you are too strict about it, you might find that there aren't many jobs available for you.

Nope. There's never enough money, and I'm not going to sell out for a fancier box and wheels.

I have worked for the last 6.5 years at a faith based credit union ($400MM in size) despite being an atheist. All of our meetings start with a prayer. They have been good up until recently where we've done more and more investment real estate lending and that doesn't sit well with me with our housing crisis in the US. Have a 3rd interview with a regional bank ($14Bn in size) to move to more C&I and CRE loans instead of single family homes. I know they are still involved in it but I'm not going to be the one writing loans on investment properties. They also do a lot of affordable housing lending and community reinvestment in distressed areas.

No.

Im a software developer and I never applied for any companies that were involved in gambling, predatory practices or fintech companies.

I work for a small < 10 employees company and it’s great.

I work as a consultant so I'm always dealing with different customers. We had one client who operates payday loans. I refused to do any work for them and thankfully my company didn't argue when I said I couldn't morally work with them.

That said, I have a child with autism and I'm spending tens of thousands of dollars a year on getting him the help he needs. My companies insurance sucks and I saw a job posting at Raytheon I was a perfect fit for. I'm still conflicted on if I should apply just to get better insurance and help my family.

No. Worked for a facility that did lethality testing on various animals for potential drugs. I recognize the need for such things, but it wore on me until I had to quit.

Only very briefly if I really needed the money. I used to work a corporate job and for a while I was a contractor doing data analysis. Those jobs left me feeling like I wasn't doing anything of value and that was enough to shift me into the public sector, which I enjoy immensely. I'd rather not go back but I could see myself needing more money than is generally on offer in public service.

If I opposed the organization ideologically I'd probably sell plasma before I took a job there. But I don't have a family relying on me so that makes it easier.

Absolutely. And I did so to afford my family's medical needs, food, shelter, etc. The pay was almost 3x what I made previously, which wasn't a lot. Benefits, flexibility, all that shit. And then they laid off my entire team hahahahahaha

and I'd do it again

It's a trade-off, so it depends on both how good the pay is and how opposed the company is.

I'm currently working for a crypto company, and have worked for other similar ones in the past, and these all tend to be libertarian types which I don't agree with, but they pay well.

On the other hand, a previous employer tried to get Saudi Aramco as a client, and I made it clear that I would not support this. Fortunately those talks didn't come anywhere.

So yes, there's certainly a line.

Definitely not.

I think money can and will never play down the feeling of working for something/someone that is against your principles and ideology. Every day you get up to work, while drinking your morning coffee you will have thoughts and hate about the place you will start working after commuting.

And do not forget, you will mostly have friends with similar ideology, they will disapprove of this too. Good friends will stay nonetheless but discussions will arise portably more often than you’d like about your choosing a workplace that is against all you believe in.

When you just go and work wherever because the pay is good, then your ideology is not more than a façade you hold up for yourself.

Nope. Any job I had where they required me to do something I thought was unethical like selling credit cards or upsetting I just refused to do it until they let me go. I would rather enjoy being unemployed than stoop to that bullshit.

Oh 100% I'll take a job with any company for the right pay and benefits. It helps that I'm an IT guy so any nastiness the company is involved in isn't directly my job.

I currently work for a national company that does contract work for food processing plants, so plenty of nasty stuff involved, but my hands stay clean as I primarily manage their ERP software and build reports and workflows to hopefully help keep what happens at the plants as above the board and by the book as possible

i think Nestle is one of the most evil corporations currently on the planet - not quite large euro bank evil but close. Being out of work for more than 6 months - still applied to multiple positions bc one can afford to stand on a soapbox only when one has the money to afford the soapbox.

I don't know about ideology, but I definitely don't believe in the industry I work in. I work for a WISP; wireless ISP. We provide internet and L2 connections to remote places: homes and oilfield sites. It's the 2nd such job I've had in 20 years.

The first was back in the late 2000s. The equipment was either cheap, or way too expensive, and needed to be replaced every five years to keep up with customer expectations. I remember my old boss once texting me around 2005ish all proud that he was sustaining 5mbps through the gateway. Today thats a single Netflix stream. The 2 and 5 ghz bands were overcrowded and noisy. The government licenses and equipment manufacturers were not at all in tune with the reality of last mile delivery Ubiquiti and Mikrotik were the only affordable options. Everything else was too expensive.

The cellular companies should have destroyed WISPs entirely by 2015. They had the tech, the financial resources, the frequencies, the government cronnies, and an existing customer base that grows every year. Cell cards are easily added to laptops and tablets. They have access to frequency licenses that us small wisps will never be able to afford. They have relationships with manufacturers who won't even look at us. But they keep targeting cities and population centers. I don't understand why they fall short on rural distribution. Especially since governments keep giving them money to do exactly that (instead of giving it to the companies who are actually trying to do it).

Then along comes Starlink. Say what you want about Musky, but Starlink for the most part works, and they are slowly eating our lunch. They have a reach and flexibilty we will never be able to match due to geography and money. Even if we had unlimited money, no-one is going to run fiber through the Rocky Mountains let alone build towers all the way from Calgary to Kelowna.

Between cell and Starlink I honestly expect to lose the entirety of our residential customer base by 2030. Maybe we'll keep a few old timers who don't want to change and a few small businesses who want to be able to call in for support. Our saving grace will be the bigger businesses who want or need higher upload speeds, L2 circuits, and support. Even those will thin out because it will cost us more to service them than they are willing to pay.

The governments are clawing back frequencies to auction off to bigger players and forcing CBRS and licensed channels down our throats. Manufacturers are more and more moving to the cripple-ware pay-to-play model, and they want subscriptions for management software.

That said, my pay cheque has never been late, I'm learning a lot of cool stuff about networking, and the boss is willing to invest in growth. The company itself has it's fingers in other pies and the owner is fairly business savvy. It's the wisp side of things that I don't have a lot of hope for.

depends if the offer lets me do some good in the company. if im just a worker who has no say in anything, then no

No. I actually did quit a job in the past when I realised they are buying email lists to send around "newsletters".

I feel it out. To some degree EVERY job has SOMETHING that opposes my ideology. So I play it by ear.

Like there was one company I worked for that used invasive telemetry on a product. But still I served as best I could.

Then a couple months ago I was approached by a couple that was dealing with a website issue. After an hour of talking about the issue the owner said, "oh, btw, this is a p*rn site site."

My conscious bothered me. I had to walk away, despite the fact that I really needed the money.

It depends, big oil yeah I guess, but for instance a company that make face recognition camera used in China to basically arrest people, no. As for instance I'd never work for a far-right pro-life company.

Depends but pretty much sure.

I'd rather take a lot of money from someone I hate so I can donate it to stuff I like than a little money from people already doing what I want.

Obviously good pay is subjective but at the end of they day you need to eat and pay for housing. Not everyone is going to ideologically match with their company.

Also how else can these companies change if everyone buys the corporate line who works for them.

Depends. Is more a smooth transition for me. Would work for Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, Microsoft if the pay was alright. Wouldn't like to work for defense industry. Or big pharma.

Yes. Refused to work for apple as a soft. Eng. They were offering around 50k more. Ill never buy apple products either even if they come with infinite battery.

I worked in accounting. I've done it. There's not a hell of a lot of choice at the beginning of your career in public.